George Galloway's Respect party has been thrown into chaos after four of its councillors in Tower Hamlets resigned the whip.

Oliur Rahman, Rania Khan, Lufta Begum and Ahmed Hussain released a statement on Friday saying they would remain as councillors but have set up a new political group called Respect (Independent).

"After due consideration and deliberation, we have decided to resign the Respect group whip with immediate effect," read the statement.

"We remain loyal Respect members and we will participate in the council chambers and attend to the community in Tower Hamlets; we remain loyal to the original policies and principles on which Respect was founded."

Speaking to Guardian Unlimited today, Mr Rahman - the first Respect councillor elected in the UK - said: "We feel there's a lack of leadership, lack of unity, lack of quality and lack of confidence in the leadership at the moment. It was hard for me and my three colleagues to leave, but we felt there was no other alternative than to go our own way."

The Respect party has been dogged by rumours of splits and factions for some time. Councilloe Wais Islam crossed the floor to join Labour earlier this year and Shamim Cowdhury quit in July. However, Respect kept his seat at the Shadwell byelection in August.

Mr Rahman said the four councillors who resigned the whip had reached their decision after a heated five-hour meeting last Wednesday night with the Respect group of councillors and the current group leader, Abjol Miah.

"There has been an atmosphere of disunity in the group for some time and even after we lost two Respect councillors, the leadership did not accept any kind of responsibility for what was happening. There was no mechanism put in place by the leadership to resolve the problem," said Mr Rahman.

"It is particularly sad for me that after repeated attempts to find a reasonable way forward, our efforts have been treated with disdain. We regret that it has come to the stage where we feel compelled to resign the whip".

The main Respect party is now joint opposition in the council with Conservatives, both with seven councillors. Labour has 27 councillors and the Lib Dems, 6.